Deletion
by Ellipsis Flood
Summary: After Megaman is deleted by Pharaoman, Roll is affected the most. And Protoman's usual behavior is not helping either.  I suck at summaries, just read it, it's Protoman/Roll, with angsty fluff. BN verse, a bit AU. Rated T cos I'm not sure about it.
1. rm f MegamanEXE

A/N: Whee~ the first fanfiction I've ever published. It's fluffy, it's angsty, it might be a bit cheesy and/or goofy. Also, I don't have a beta reader and English is not my first language. So even tough people assured me that my English was good, pointing out mistakes is never wrong.

Disclaimer: I own the plot. I own the laptop I am writing this on. Oh, and I own my weird brain. Don't steal any of those. But feel free to review, hype, flame or MST this piece of fanfiction. (In case of MST, give me a link so I can read it and take it with humor.)

This fanfiction will go AU from the point of its beginning, especially because I don't like how nonchalantly Megaman's deletion was handled in MMNTW. And I love angsting AIs.

~Ellipsis Flood

-:-

**Chapter 1: rm -f MegamanEXE  
**

_Just as Megaman grabbed Protoman's hand and let himself be pulled up, he caught a glimpse of something in the background. Instinctively, he pushed Protoman aside, only to be hit by an energy beam a moment later._

_"Megaman: Data deleted."_

_The corners of the blue navi's mouth raised a bit before he finally got dissolved into pixels._

In the net, the other navis just stared at the recordings. There was a lot of static in them, but they were clear enough for them to see what happened. Glyde practically froze, Iceman's and Gutsman's jaws practically dropped to the ground and Roll sank to the ground, almost breaking out in tears.

"He can't be gone! No, he can't!"

"You just saw the recordings, right? So you can't really deny it. Megaman got deleted, deal with it."

Protoman crossed his arms in front of his chest, shortly glancing at the navis, but his eyes stopped at Roll, who now got up and stormed towards him. But before she could get there, he was logged out again.

"That... that..."

Rolls words changed into growls.

"Protoman bad, guts!"

Roll looked down to the ground and nodded slowly.

-:-

"What do you think, Protoman?"

Chaud looked from his PET over to the place where the dome had been.

"He's strong for sure. Megaman was a worthy opponent, and that navi deleted him with one blow.

Protoman closed his eyes, hidden by his visor. In these moments he was truly grateful for his creator to give him one. Even tough he didn't want to admit it, Protoman was a bit shocked by what had happened after the battle and the fact that it could have been him instead of Megaman.

"Protoman?"

"Yes?"

Chaud's voice tore him out of his thoughts again.

"Pharaoman can't be disappeared. I'll head home right now, but I'll send you to the net to look for that navi. We'll meet at home later."

Protoman nodded silently and Chaud made his way to the nearest terminal in order to jack Protoman in.

-:-

The net was suspiciously quiet. Regarding today's events, that was just naturally. People feared about their navis being deleted just as Megaman was. Without any clue where to start, Protoman just flew trough the net, looking for anything that might give away Pharaoman's whereabouts.

Not having found anything, Protoman just kept standing in a small public area not many people visited and waited for Chaud to return home for him to get into the PET. Walking around a bit and looking into the sky, he began wondering what deletion felt like. Maybe it wasn't that bad, like how some humans depicted death. After all, deletion came really close to human death. Or maybe it was rather painful. He didn't know. Deleted navis didn't return. That was the whole point of deletion after all.

Protoman shook his head fiercely.

"Why am I thinking about that? Data get's deleted and that's it."

Then his look fell onto another navi in that area. He hadn't noticed it before, so he decided to get closer. After a few careful steps he recognized it.

"Roll?"

She turned around abruptly, her face spotting a great shock, and before Protoman could react, she had sent him flying with one of her arrows.

The red navi landed hard on his back a few meters away and tried to get up slowly, while Roll slammed her hands in front of her mouth, gasping. She run towards him, knelt down and stretched out her hand.

"Oh I'm so sorry Protoman I'm sorry I didn't mean to I just thought you weren't you but you're you I'm sorry!"

He just stared at her, took her hand and mumbled:

"I though you were glad I was hit."

This made Roll shake her head angrily.

"I'm not _that_ kind of navi!"

When he looked up at her, he saw tears in her eyes. Was she still that concerned with Megaman? Protoman took in a slight breath before talking.

"I... I want to apologize for what I said before."

Roll stared at him. Protoman apologizing for something was new to her.

"Even tough I can't really comprehend your behavior, I shouldn't have reacted like that."

He let out the breath he was holding and his eyes rolled up in relief. Thanks again for the visor.

"I..."

Before Roll could say anything else, Protoman interrupted her.

"Now go home. Pharaoman is still somewhere out here. You're not save in the net now."

He had switched from personal to professional within the blink of an eye and the usual aura of aloofness around him was back. After a moment of silence, Roll simply nodded and walked off. When she looked back, he was already gone. The pink navi stared onto the ground and walked on, tears dropping to the ground.


	2. find n RollEXE

A/N: I decided to give the chapters witty names and found Linux commands pretty fitting. And yeah, I know that .exe is a Windows thing. But the Unix familiy is way better for geeky command line in-jokes and I couldn't really get familiar with the thought of a Windows-based NetNavi. (Expect literal Heroic BSODs in that case.) Oh and, really, please leave a review. *sticks an imaginary _How's my writing?_ sticker onto this fic*

Disclaimer: I own the plot, my laptop and my weird brain, happily ever after, yawn.

PS: I just noticed my seperators weren't shown. I hope the new ones work for sure because I really don't wanna resort to these lines. They're ugly.

PPS: -noob here. The system keeps swallowing stuff.

-:-

**Chapter 2: find -name RollEXE  
**

Back in his PET, Protoman touched his chestpiece, where Roll's arrow had hit him. He really hadn't expected that. But even if he had no reason to expect that attack, Protoman should have at least been able to dodge it. There was only one thing to do in that case.

"Chaud... could you do a full system check on me?"

His operator looked up from his laptop, over to the PET Protoman was on.

"Is anything wrong, Protoman?"

There seemed to be a hint of concern in Chaud's voice, which was a bit irritating because Chaud Blaze wasn't concerned. Never.

"I came across Roll. She didn't take my opinion that well."

Protoman told Chaud about how he met Roll and got attacked by her, but for some reason, he left out the apology and the bad conscience that had been plaguing him before.

"Roll managed to hit you? That's indeed a reason to do a check."

Chaud smirked, while his navi shrugged and prepared to switch to standby mode, which would speed up the check a lot.

-:-

It took Protoman a few seconds to start up again. Seeing the results of his check on Chaud's main PC, he nodded contently.

"So I'm okay then."

Chaud nodded back to his navi.

"There were some minor consistancy errors, otherwise..."

These were good news. Consistancy errors were pretty normal and could be fixed easily by the navis themselves.

While Protoman was still reading the log, Chaud headed for the door.

"I have some work to do now. Just alert me if there's any news about new computer-induced disaster or Pharaoman himself."

"Of course, Chaud."

With these words, he left the room. Protoman waited a few minutes to make sure his operator hadn't forgotten anything, before he started downloading some files.

-:-

"Hey, Roll. I'm going over to Lan... you know..."

Roll nodded, not even trying to smile. Normally she would have accompanied her operator and have some fun with Lan and Megaman, but right now it wouldn't be such a great idea to do that. Lan would be reminded of his navi, and Roll of her close friend.

"Just go to the net... try to distract yourself a bit. You need company, Roll."

Maylu sighed, waved at the PET and left the room.

"Well, that's actually quite a good idea."

With these words, she left her PET and got out into the net. Maybe she could visit Gutsman. Or Iceman. Even Glyde's butler-like attitude was quite endearing and mood-lightening. Or... her thoughts trailed off and she shook her head. No. She would not visit Protoman, of all navis in the net.

Somehow, Roll ended up thinking about their encounter the day before. He, Protoman, the most aloof navi she had ever known, had apologized to her. That was so not like him that Roll wondered if he was defective. She shrugged off that thought, thinking that maybe he was also affected by Megaman's... Roll stopped dead in her tracks, landed on a virtual skyscraper and broke down crying.

"I didn't know you had such a high interest in psychology, Protoman."

Chaud had a surprised look at his PET, where his navi was reading what looked like an e-book on

"The stages of grief? Who died?"

Chaud practically knew the answer, even tough the deceased wasn't even human. His navi then looked up to him and closed the book, starting to talk in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I'm trying to understand Megaman's... friends."

"Navis are just data."

"Apparently not to them."

Absentmindedly, Protoman touched his chest, where the arrow had hit him. Damn, why was he still thinking about that incident?

"I still got a lot of work to do. Actually, I just came here because I got a spare energy drink here. Go patrol the net a bit, it's the only thing we can do at the moment. Just report anything strange to me immediately."

With a firm nod, Protoman disappeared from the PET, right into the net.

-:-

The virtual sky started to darken over the net, mimicing it's real counterpart. Roll hadn't moved within what had to be hours. She just sat there, staring down the edge of the skyscraper, barely noticing her surroundings and sobbing almost unhearably.

Suddenly she felt someone or something walking up to her from behind. She could have moved and defended herself, like she had done before, but this time she just didn't care. All the pink navi did was pulling her knees tighter to her body, clinging to them even more. She felt a slight pressure against her back and two hands being wrapped around her. Roll slowly moved her head downwards, seeing a pair of red-gauntleted hands with black and white emblems on them.

"Why are you here?"

Her voice sounded weak and hoarse. Protoman tightened his grip a bit and leant his head onto her shoulder.

"I don't know."

With that, he closed his eyes and just kept sitting there.

None of them said a word, neither did move. When Roll had calmed down a bit, Protoman let go of her and sat next to her.

They started talking. About Megaman, what they thought about him, what he had meant to them. About their operators, their reactions to recent events. And about the past, the fun times they had, funny anecdotes and other silly stuff.

Time had passed, and eventually Protoman spoke up.

"We should leave now."

He stood up and dusted off his armor, even tough there was no dust in the net.

"You're right. Maylu must be worried by now."

The red navi turned around to leave, when Roll added something.

"Well... then... until tomorrow?"

Without taking another look at her, Protoman answered nonchalantly.

"Maybe."

Before she could say anything else, he was gone and slowly but surely, Roll started wondering just what the hack had happened.


	3. man k love

A/N: Vegeta, what does the scouter say about its fluff level? - It's over 9000! Oh man, this is pure fluff. Well, I tried to stay in character as much as it's possible in such a situation. And nervous "logics are failing me" Protoman is actually pretty fun to write.

PS: I didn't actually check... I wonder if there actually is a manpage on love.

PPS: About navi-backups... oops, I stumbled into the same plothole NTW did. Well, I just assumed that not everyone could afford making backups for the whole navi, including memories and other stuff, considering the high humanity quote of them. And let's be honest, would _Lan Hikari_ of all people actually think of making backups?

-:-

**Chapter 3: man -k love**

Chaud couldn't help, but Protoman seemed a bit off. Ever since Megaman's deletion, or death, since he still didn't know how to call it, his navi acted strange. Not that Protoman was unaware of it. The demand of a system check proved the opposite.

Slowly but surely, Chaud became worried. Even tough navis were just data, he cared for Protoman, in a way at least.

"I can't grow weak now. Not today!"

Chaud barely whisptered, clenched his fist and squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he saw Protoman returning to his PET.

"What took you so long? I thought it was just a few viruses."

"Theses were no metools. They were a bit tougher than expected, but I could deal with them." The problem had been so minor that Protoman was able to deal with it without Chaud's help, leaving him time to think about the things on his mind.

-:-

Roll stood on top of the same skyscraper as the day before. She didn't really know what to think about the past days, but she knew that, for some reason, she wanted to be there and wait if Protoman would really appear.

The sound of a link opening right behind her caught her attention. Before she could turn around, a familiar voice spoke up.

"It's just me, so don't shoot me again."

She turned around, smiling about the red navi's attempt to be funny.

"You look... happy today, Roll. What happened?"

"You wouldn't believe it, but we found a way to restore Megaman."

While her smile turned into a wide grin, something really deep inside of Protoman shouted D'oh!. He did his best to ignore it and pulled up the corners of his mouth a bit.

Roll pulled up a digital image of something that looked like Megaman's emblem between her fingers and held it in front of her. Protoman positioned himself next to the pink navi and had a closer look at it.

"It's parts were in our PETs. Lan's father says it's some kind of..."

"Echo, yes."

His voice trailed off and she continued to talk.

"Now all we need is to get his frame from SciLab."

The last word got Protoman out of his trance and made him stare at her.

"You're planning to go to SciLab? Pharaoman wouldn't like to have you in there."

Roll smiled again, algough this time it was more of a sad smile than a happy one.

"I know. We'll have to be faster than him until we have Megaman back."

"I'm not supposed to tell you, but... I'll be there too."

Now was Roll's turn to stare.

"Pharaoman poses a threat to the world. Chaud will send me in there to end him."

The two navis, now facing each other, were staring into cyberspace. Both of them realized that their missions were dangerous and that there was the possibility of at least one of them not returning.

After what seemed like an eternity, Roll was the first to speak again.

"For you that shouldn't be too much of a problem. I'm sure Chaud can afford making backups for you."

Her voice was sad and bitter, which made Protoman whince a little. Trying to keep his cool, he answered her.

"Chaud doesn't make backups. He said that if I got deleted, he would just install the core data again."

"But..."

Tears rose in Roll's eyes.

"Without your memories you're barely you!"

The red navi, being slightly taller than her, took her by the shoulders and pulled her towards imself, holding her tight.

"Don't cry, Roll... just don't cry."

Ignoring how awkward the whole situation felt, he kept holding her until he felt her relax again.

"It's okay. I think I calmed down again. Sorry for that outburst."

Protoman took Roll by the shoulders again and looked into her eyes. She couldn't exactly see it, but she was sure he did.

"No need to be sorry, Roll."

She didn't know why, but the way he said that made her blush.

"Thank you, Protoman."

There they were, standing on top of a virtual skyscraper, his hands on her shoulders, both looking into each other's eyes, smiling and at a total loss of words.

-:-

Protoman had no difficulties when it came to fighting viruses and deleting enemy navis at his operator's bidding, but in that particular situation he was totally helpless. Basically he knew how the whole boy and girl thing went, but knowing something and actually acting according to it was more difficult than it seemed on this topic. There was no manual, no ultimate solution, no safe path. How did humans know what to do in these situations all the time?

_They don't know. They just do something and hope it works out for them._

Another eternity had passed until Protoman took in a deep breath and stepped closer to Roll.

"Roll... I..."

Half closing his eyes,

_Just act!_

his right hand left her shoulder and wandered underneath her chin, holding her slightly

_Do it!_

while the other one slipped onto her back, pulling her closer to him.

_NOW!_

Finally shutting off the last remnants of reason, Protoman leant in and kissed her.

-:-

In hindsight, Roll had seen it coming, but when she stood on that roof, in front of him, his hands on her shoulders, her interaction module seemed to have shut down. She just stood there and stared at him. Mr. Cool-and-Aloof was actually standing there with her, about to... well, do something. Or say something. Whatever it was, Roll felt like one of these girls in the shows Maylu watched from time to time.

And then he kissed her. Almost instinctively, she kissed him back, closing her eyes and enjoying every moment she had. Who knew how long it took him to get back to his usual self?

When they seperated again, their eyes locked. Roll opened her mouth, but Protoman was faster than her.

"I love you, Roll."

Cue Roll's jaw dropping.

"Did you just..."

Her voice grew fainter until she was silent again. Understanding her anyways, he nodded and embraced her again.

"Actually, I was supposed to get rid of some viruses and then return to Chaud. I'm already late... Next time."

His voice was so low that hadn't Roll been pressed against his body, she hadn't heard it. She looked into his face, wanting to say something, but he loosened the embrace, stepped back and disappeared into a link.

Roll stared at the place he had been standing and, unbeknownst to herself, touched her lips, smiling widely.


	4. rm f PharaomanEXE

A/N: Woah, short chapter. Well, may have something to do with the fact that I suck at cutscenes and that I didn't retell stuff that was already shown in the show. Redundancy 'n' stuff. I hope you don't mind that. ^_-

-:-

**Chapter 4: rm -f PharaomanEXE**

Sand. Blinding white, hot, virtual sand. Somewhere among all that sand, a group of NetNavis had just logged in. Exactly speaking, a group of NetNavis with a

little brown dog.

"Arf! Arf!"

Barking gleefully, the animalistic virus started running, followed by the rest of the group. Except for Roll, who seemed to space out a bit.

"Hey, Roll! Are you alright?"

The pink navi blinked and shook her head forcefully.

"Yes, Maylu."

With these words, she closed up with her friends.

-:-

"Time to repay a favor, Protoman."

The red navi nodded silently when he entered SciLab.

The first thing Protoman saw was a gigantic pyramid, Pharaoman's hideout, if you could call it that. The second thing was a huge gap right in front of him.

And in it, on a small rock that wouldn't last much longer, there was Megaman.

"Just in time. Go get him out."

Without hesitation, Protoman jumped town into the gap, landing securely on some small cliffs until he reached the unconscious navi. Just as he picked him up,

he felt the rock shaking under his feet, jumping off right before it sank into the flowing lava.

After Protoman had gotten out of the gap again, he put Megaman down and threw a last glance at him.

"Now we're even."

His next stop would be the center of Pharaoman's pyramid, towering up in front of him. While the red navi ran towards the monument, thoughts of the scenes

before his departure flashed up in his mind. He had left some important things hanging back then. Clearing them was yet another motivation to finish this

quickly and return home. For her. With these thoughts, Protoman entered the temple.

-:-

The fight didn't go as well as intended. Pharaoman was always a tiny bit faster, dodging most of Protoman's attacks while landing a few hits on his own.

"He's tougher than we thought. Ready, Protoman?"

The red navi got up once again, glaring at the navi on the other side of the room, preparing for what was coming now.

"Cybersword. Slot-in! Download!"

Pharaoman was back up again, clearly preparing something.

"Wide sword. Slot-in! Download!"

As the second sword appeared, the solo navi dashed towards Protoman.

"Long sw-"

Just a millisecond before Chaud inserted the chip, Pharaoman reached his opponent, knocked him across the ground and effectively cancelled the attack.

"Now meet your end, unworthy piece of junk!"

In a theatrical manner, Pharaoman pointed his blaster at Protoman, who still had to recover from the failed Program Advance.

All of a sudden, a shot hit Pharaoman, drawing both his and Protoman's attention. In the entrance there stood Megaman, pointing his weapon at the enemy navi.

"Big damn hero..."

Barely being able to mutter these words, the red navi tried to stand up, but finally collapsed instead.

-:-

"Get up, Protoman!"

Chaud shook his PET almost in a panic.

"Come on, Protoman... wake up."

The boy knew that alone, Megaman wouldn't stand a chance against the evil navi.

-:-

"No one can defeat Pharaoman!"

The solo navi shot another bunch of energy balls towards Megaman, who barely managed to dodge them.

"It's not that easy, Lan!"

Megaman returned fire, not being sure how long he would stand that. A quick glance fell onto the unconscious Protoman, still slumped down on the ground, and he continued firing.

"Lan! Program Advance!"

Unbeknownst to the blue navi, Protoman stirred again.

-:-

"...dvance!"

The world was still hazy around the red navi, but this was clearly Megaman's voice.

"Wait!"

What was meant to be a shout came out as barely a whisper. The misfired Program Advance had affected Protoman more than he had expected. He barely noticed the white flash indicating the first chip's activation. But Pharaoman did, clearly preparing to interrupt him, just as he did before.

With the second chip being activated, Protoman mustered all his remaining strength, jumped up and held Pharaoman back.

Activating the third chip and forming the final attack, Megaman noticed what the red navi was doing.

"Go get away!"

"I can't hold him much longer! Finish him!"

Megaman hesitated, staring blankly at Protoman.

"GO ON, WEAKLING!"

Squeezing his eyes closed, the blue navi unleashed the power of the Program Advance onto the two navis.

_"Pharaoman: Data deleted. Protoman: Data deleted."_

The blue navi dropped onto his knees, raised his hands and plain stared at them, realizing what he had done._  
_


	5. less ProtomanLOG

A/N: Almost finished. Aww crap, I'm too fond of that romantic stuff, look at the word count. I'll write an epilogue, and maybe, only maybe, there will be a sequel. Oh and by the way, it's 2:30 at night here. I don't know if my brain's spellchecker's still online.

-:-

**Chapter 5: less ProtomanLOG**

As the desert turned back into normal data structures, Roll and the others were turned back to normal too. While Sharkman, Woodman and Skullman, the three officials, logged out immediately, Megaman's group stayed. After Lan's father had brought the satellite back into a stable orbit, he started puzzling the heavily damaged Gutsman back together. The remaining navis had yet to come to their senses again.

Roll was the first to speak again.

"We... what happened? Is Pharaoman gone?"

"Y-yes, Roll."

Maylu sounded odd, like something terrible had just happened.

"What's wrong, Maylu?"

"Go back to the core. Megaman's there."

The girl was clearly close to sobbing.

"Maylu!"

No answer.

"Let's go. Rush?"

A hole opened in front of Roll and the little virus dog jumped out. Roll bowed down to him, patted him onto the head and smiled.

"Take us to Megaman. Okay?"

"Arf!"

The hole closed and another, bigger, one opened.

"Come on!"

The pink navi waved for the others to follow her and jumped in. Probably they all were thinking that she was going for Megaman. That was true, but it was not the only reason Roll was so eager to get to the core of the system. The other one had just admitted his feelings for her.

-:-

When they appeared at the core, they noticed Megaman on the ground, staring at his hands and mumbling something. Roll was the first one to run over to him, looking into his empty eyes.

"Megaman?"

"I had to do it. There was no other way. He wanted it that way. I had to."

The next one by his side was Glyde.

"What has he got, Ms. Roll?"

She shrugged, looking for any trace of Protoman.

"Megaman... has Protoman been here too?"

The blue navi started sobbing.

"I... I didn't mean to..."

His hands were in his face now, trying to rub off the virtual tears. Roll knelt down in front of him, looking right into his eyes.

"What was it that you didn't mean to do?"

"I... there was Pharaoman... Program Advance... Protoman held him in place."

Roll's eyes widened, along with Glyde's and Iceman's. Megaman nodded shakily.

"I killed him."

It was almost unhearable.

"As I understand... you had to..."

The pink navi turned away from the group, not wanting them to see her tears. Her efforts failed, but the signal was clear enough for the others to leave her alone. So they stood there in silence, until Lan's voice interrupted them.

"We should go now."

He sounded so monotone that it was almost creepy. Who could blame him after what he had to do?

-:-

Startup. Return from standby. Synchronize system clock.

"Chaud?"

The boy looked up from his PC.

"Yes?"

"Why am I missing a whole day of memories?"

"I restored you from a backup."

Protoman's jaw almost dropped.

"What happened?"

"I'm loading information about the last day into your PET."

The first junk of data was about a minor virus attack somewhere in NetCity. There was nothing special about it, except that it took him longer than usual to finish them off.

The second one was much bigger. It was about Pharaoman locking himself into SciLab and how Megaman got restored. The first thing to shock him was when Roll and the others got turned into stone by one of his minions. Then came Megaman's rescue and the battle against Pharaoman.

Protoman stared at the static at the end of the recording.

"So this is how I got deleted."

He was sure that he sounded absolutely calm, making his operator believe that everything was okay again.

"Chaud, I'd like to follow my traces of this day. I'm sure it would help me to overcome the confusion of losing one whole day."

The boy nodded silently. But just before Protoman could leave, he added something.

"Take care of yourself, Protoman."

-:-

By now, that simple skyscraper held so many memories for Roll. Some were good, some were bad. But right now, she simply wished to forget. Just when she thought that her life would be okay again, when there was a chance for Megaman to come back. And when Protoman... she shook her head, not wanting to think about it. Now that he was gone, no one knew of that place any more. Not even Rush, who had stayed in her PET. At the moment, she wanted to be alone. But somehow it just shouldn't be, as she heard a link open right behind her. The last time this had happened, it had been... who would be so cruel to act like him?

Slowly, she turned around, head first, followed by the rest of her body. The more she saw of him, the wider her smile grew. And all of a sudden, she jumped at him to give him a hug that almost threw him off his feet. Then it dawned upon her. Even tough he was back, he wouldn't remember anything. He wouldn't even know her.

"Roll?"

The pink navi jerked up, looking into Protoman's face.

"You remember me?"

He laid his arms around her, holding her.

"I remember everything except for that one day. Chaud had a backup."

"But you said Chaud didn't make backups."

"That's what I thought too, but apparently... wait? I said that? I can't remember that."

The corners of his mouth moved slightly upwards.

"I came back yesterday, right?"

Roll nodded, still overly happy about everything. Slowly, she got ouf of his embrace, placing herself in front of him. She realized that he definitely didn't remember their last meeting and its consequences.

"It must have been after that virus attack. That's why it took me that long. Roll?"

She stared into cyberspace.

"Roll!"

Snapping out of it again, she turned towards the red navi.

"Yes... you mentioned that."

Protoman's brows furrowed under his visor before he came to a possible conclusion.

"Don't tell me you watched how I-"

Roll shook her head.

"No, that wasn't it."

He looked into her eyes in a way that would leave no doubt that he did.

"Then tell me what bothers you. You're reacting different."

She stared at the ground for a moment, but when she looked up to him again, she already had tears in her eyes. The pink navi almost pierced his visor with her looks.

"Different? How would you react if I would kiss you and-"

Protoman could barely hold back a gasp. Instead, he put his fingers over Roll's mouth in order to silence her.

-:-

"Hold that thought. I kissed you?"

Not that it was overly bad for Protoman, but it was, in fact, a surprise. He imagined that was how humans felt when they woke up after a party, totally hungover and with an unknown girl next to them. The analogy wasn't perfect, but somehow fitting.

"You did. And..."

Roll trailed off.

"And? Tell me."

"And..."

She took a breath.

"You said that you loved me."

The two navis locked their gazes, not moving an inch. Protoman was pretty sure he was blushing, which was a rare occasion, considering his nature. Then, Roll's eyes fell.

"You want to tell me that you didn't mean it, right?"

Now he was left truely speachless. He tried to say something, but he knew that any stuttered excuse would just make everything worse. And there was one other thing he knew: He didn't want to lose her.

-:-

It seemed a bit like a d j -vu when Protoman held her by the shoulders and pulled her towards him. Before she knew what was happening, his lips were on hers, her hands on his back pulling him even closer to her. Both closed their eyes, enjoying every moment before they broke apart again.

"I mean it, Roll."

The pink navi leant against his chest, smiling contently.

"Good, because so do I."

Both of them knew the meaning of that sentence, but neither of them bothered to elaborate it.


	6. logout

A/N: So well, this is it. As for me, this chapter is... well, it's kinda sucky, but I had to write the big reveal. I love awkward situations and it seemed a fitting end. Please review, I'd appreciate it.

~Ellipsis Flood

-:-

**Epilogue: logout**

"Are you still that fond of keeping this..."

Roll gesticulated between Protoman and her, looking right into his eyes.

"...secret?"

He turned to her, taking her in his arms.

"Yes, Roll. As much as I'd like to go public, I just think some people, especially Chaud, aren't ready for this."

The pink navi giggled, imagining the boy's face if he would catch them in a compromising position. But if Chaud didn't just get the sudden idea to check some of the high level security servers of his own company, he wouldn't find them. Nor would anyone else.

"It's hard to keep everything up, Protoman."

He nodded, tightening his grip around her.

"I know that. Chaud's getting suspicious. I mean, he's not stupid, and for sure he's not as dense as Lan. Or Megaman, for that matter."

Roll looked to both sides.

"But you're sure he won't find us here, right?"

"Right."

The two navis looked into each others' eyes for a moment before they pressed their lips together in a passionate kiss. None of them noticed that a communication window had popped up right next to them, until a voice interrupted them.

"P-Protoman?"

They seperated from each other and gazed at the screen, showing a visibly irritated Chaud, pointing alternately at both of them. Finally, the boy got his voice back.

"What. You."

Silence again. Roll slid closer to Protoman.

"You said he wouldn't find us."

Protoman laid his arm around her, trying to comfort her, when finally, Chaud managed to speak in coherent sentences again.

"I didn't expect that."

Chaud grumbled something that sounded like Sakurai.

"Come with me, Protoman. And you, get out of my server."

Protoman was logged out and in consequence, Roll was kicked from the server, landing hard on her backside in her PET.

-:-

"Hey! You-"

"Roll?"

Maylu interrupted what sounded like the beginning of a tirade.

"Where have you been? I was worried about you."

"You should be worried about yourself. A really angry Chaud Blaze is on the way to you now."

This left Maylu in confusion. What would he want from her? The girl's eyebrows furrowed.

"What have you done, Roll?"

"Nothing... well, nothing I'd consider bad."

"And what about the non-bad things?"

Roll opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, she was interrupted by Maylu's mother.

"Maylu darling, Chaud is here. He wants to talk to you."

Followed by angry footsteps on the way to her room. Only a moment later, a furious Chaud stood in the door, pointing at her, holding his PET in the other hand.

"You! You better watch what your navi's doing!"

Confusion.

"What exactly did she do?"

"I caught her in one of the high level security servers. With Protoman!"

Silence.

"What."

The red-haired girl stared at Chaud blankly, only to have the same look returned to her.

"Did you just say-"

The boy got his fury back.

"Yes! I just damn said that I caught your navi making out with mine. Period."

Maylu turned her head towards her PET.

"Roll?"

The pink navi nodded silently, making her operator blush a little.

"That's... well... awkward."

The girl took in a breath before continuing.

"So, is this something serious?"

Chauds brows rose.

"You can't-"

"It is. Definitely."

Chaud and Maylu looked at Protoman's PET, not really believing what they heard.

"I apologize for not telling you, but I know you long enough to know what you think about navis showing emotions."

That statement, combined with the deadpan delivery, left the boy in silence. He looked to the ground and seemed to think about his answer for a while.

"I don't know what to think about all that. I can understand your point, tough. But this is irritating, you know?"

The red navi nodded, now looking at Maylu.

"I guess I'm okay with that. Actually, it's really cute."

The girl squeed, grinning widely.

"I guess we're kinda related now, Chaud."

"Seems like it."

"So... my mom just baked a cake. Would you bother staying here?"

Chaud estimated the amount of work waiting for him at home and decided that he could need a break and something in his stomach. He nodded affirmatively, following Maylu out of the room. Just as he reached the door, he turned around again to plug his PET into the home system.

"Just, err... don't do anything too naughty."

The boy blushed, finally leaving the room.


End file.
